282 THE HISTORY OF CREATION. 



The second great fundamental law whicli is obvious in the 

 history of nations is the great law of progTess or perfecting. 

 Taken as a whole, the history of man is the history of his 

 progressive development. It is true that everywhere and at 

 all times we may notice individual retrogressions, or obsei-ve 

 that crooked roads towards progress have been taken, which 

 lead only towards one-sided and external perfecting, and 

 thus deviate more and more from the higher goal of internal 

 and enduring perfecting. However, on the whole, the 

 movement of development of all mankind is and remains a 

 progressive one, inasmuch as man continually removes him- 

 self further from his ape-like ancestors, and continually 

 approaches nearer to his own ideal. 



Now, if we wish to know what causes actually determine 

 these two great laws of development in man, namely, the 

 law of divergence and the law of progress, we must com- 

 pare them with the corresponding laws of development in 

 animals, and on a close examination we shall inevitably come 

 to the conclusion that the phenomena, as well as their causes, 

 are exactly the same in the two cases. The course of 

 development in man, just as in that of animals, being 

 directed by the two fundamental laws of differentiation 

 and perfecting, is determined solely by purely mechanical 

 causes, and is solely the necessary consequence of natural 

 selection in the struggle for life. 



Perhaps in the preceding discussion the question has pre- 

 sented itself to some — " Are not these two laws identical ? 

 Is not progress in all cases necessarily connected with diver- 

 o-ence ? " This question has often been answered in the 

 affirmative, and Carl Ernst Bar, for example, one of the 

 greatest investigators in the domain of the history of de- 



